Hey Carolyn!

This is actually what I did at Harvard for a good 3 years, was putting in
place processes in the archives to extract the data files from obsolete
media identified as potentially having archival research value!

If it's of enduring value, research or record, they I'd say spend some time
with a test sample of the disks to determine content.  You can use FTK
Imager (free download) to image the files, and read the (kind of hard to
read) content.

If you invest in Access Data FTKs software, you can view the actual
formatting of the files. Otherwise you can recover at least some of the
data to determine if it's worth doing the whole slew of disks.

As a side note, there's a HUGE archival digital preservation group which
does exactly this, and you may be able to send them to a local university
for some assistance.  Alternatively, City of Vancouver does this on a
regular basis and has great resources! Feel free to contact me offline if
you want more info, I'm happy to share whatever policy docs I still have at
my fingertips.

Tessa L. Cierny, MLS, CRM

Information Governance Specialist

Mercedes-Benz USA

C: 404.316.9094 | [log in to unmask]

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